What tools

I AM writing to you to inform your readers that the Federal Government is going to abandon the Apprenticeship Tools Incentive Scheme. The previous scheme was introduced to help low-paid apprentices with the purchase of tools and equipment that were related to the trade, and encourage them to finish their apprenticeship and become valuable members of the workforce, and their communities.
The current Federal Government is proposing a new scheme called Trade Support Loans, which will allow eligible apprentices or trainees to apply for a $20,000 loan to cover costs of their training, tools and equipment or the cost of living.
This loan is a voluntary system, however if the apprentice accepts the loan they will start repaying it when they reach an annual income of $53,345 as well as being indexed to CPI.
This loan is similar to a HELP debt.
The government says that this new system will help support Australian apprentices and will give them a 20 per cent discount on completion of their apprenticeship.
This is estimated to provide $1.9 billion in loans. Is this sustainable if the loans are likely to be paid back over many years of the forward estimates? Or not paid back, as many university HECS/ HELP loans are not, as reported in the media.
I don’t know how this scheme will better support Australian apprentices, when we are asking our youngest and lowest-paid Australians to pay a debt that will be held over them for the coming years. This will in turn find their cost of living, discretionary spending and applying for further loans even more difficult.
Australian trades are in trouble and we see and hear that in the news articles daily – jobs going offshore, because it is cheaper to produce. Australian tradespeople are highly skilled, however we are not all necessarily paid the big bucks as the public are led to believe.
More information can be found at
www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/trade-support-loans
Ian Venables,
Pakenham.